Is Any Weight Loss Healthy?

I saw a new story the other day that really got me thinking. A nutrition professor from Kansas has been on a "junk food" diet for three weeks and he has lost 13 pounds!^[1] On top of the weight loss, his bad cholesterol levels have gone down and his good cholesterol levels have gone up.^[1] Can this be possible?

First of all, we have to be specific about what he's really eating. He's basically eating Twinkies, sugary cereal and milk, a few veggies, and the occasional hot dog and Doritos.^[1] Technically, and I'm really stretching it here, he's got the food groups covered (though nowhere near in the proper proportions).

A little word of warning here, I am not a nutritionist. But I do know a little bit about how the body works so here's what I think. There are logical explanations for why he is losing weight and why his cholesterol levels are changing. But is any weight loss good weight loss? I think not! Chances are that after this "diet" is over, he'll go back to his old way of eating and gain all of the weight back anyway. Even if he does transition to an actually healthy diet, his body will be so - and I use a technical term here - out of whack that it will probably take months for it to detox from the chemicals and actually start to be healthy. The problems this diet could cause won't even necessarily be obvious but may exist throughout his entire body.

To this man's credit, he's not recommending this diet to anyone else. I think he's doing a combination of experimenting (at his own expense) and perhaps trying to make a point that not all weight loss is good weight loss. Unfortunately, there are so many diet-crazed people out there that I expect at least hundreds, if not thousands of people to try the Twinkie diet out (though probably without the vegetables). The Twinkie diet is a shining example of why fad dieting is a bad idea!

[1] "Nutrition professor loses weight on Twinkie diet," CTV News, accessed September 18, 2010 from http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100917/twinkie-diet-100917/.